198-Chapter 13-6 Magic Words

What makes you think that?

I was wondering why we were talking about that all of a sudden, and Serna, with a strange look on her face.

No, I just assumed it was because you two had your arms around each other, but...

When he said that, for the first time, my gaze and Primera's gaze went diagonally downward. What was there was Primera's arm entwined with mine.

''Eee!　This is, well, you know!

Calm down, Primera!　This was an accident. It's all Albert's fault!

Yeah, right!

For now, I chanted the magic word 'Albert is bad' to calm Primera down. Normally this wouldn't have calmed him down, but it seemed to have an excellent effect on Primera right now, and she gradually calmed down by taking a deep breath while muttering 'It's all my brother's fault'. At that time, Serna-san said, "I understand that you haven't been dating, but I think it's terrible to call it an accident, don't you? I'm sorry to say that I didn't have time for this, but I had to ignore it.

'So, I heard you two are getting married soon, is that true?'

Serna and Henri looked surprised at my question, which made Albert feel better by making him look bad, but Serna gave a small nod when I said that I had glanced at the guild and heard about such a thing.

''Congratulations on that!　So, do you have a detailed date and time?

I congratulated them with a little more tension and they shyly said it was in two weeks.

'Two weeks later...'

They were confused by my muttered disappointment. There.

'I'm sorry, Mr Temma. I'm sorry I'm so late to the party that you invited me.

Marx-san, who had been watching the timing, came into the Manchuria Pavilion as if he was late for work.

''Um ... is there something wrong?''

No, the two of you just gave me the date of the wedding, and it kind of coincides with our own departure date...

Once Mr. Marx-san noticed something wrong with me, he started acting as we had discussed. Marx-san also made a troubled face before Serna-san felt uncomfortable, "I see.......I'd like you to celebrate with me if you can.......

''Serna-san, can't we move the date up?''

It's done in the Manchuria Pavilion, so I guess there's nothing we can't do...

Serna, who seems to have been fooled by our performance, mentioned that it would be possible to change the date. So.

'Father!　We want to attend Serna's wedding too, so please move the date up. I'll pay for the entire wedding, so please make it as gorgeous as you can!　

'What!　Hey, Mr. Temma!

Serna-san let out a surprised voice. Not only Serna-san, but Henri as well, and incidentally, Marx-san was also surprised. Well, since I just came up with the idea of the cost story here, it was probably because it was the first time Marx-san had heard of it.

That's not a good idea, Serna, Henri and Marx said they would pay for it, but then an unexpected ally appeared.

''As for me, I'd be grateful if Temma would bear the burden.

It was Albert, who was finally able to move after recovering a bit from the damage. However, I could see that he was pushing himself quite hard, so Marx-san was worried about him, but Albert convinced me by saying that he was just tired from the trip.

Aside from Mr. Marx, who had met Albert beforehand, Serna and Henri were surprised by Albert's sudden appearance and tried to kneel on the spot, but were softly stopped by Primera.

''Do the three of you know the story of Temma's exploits in the Haust frontier county?

Mr. Marx was the only one who nodded at Albert's question. The story I was active in is that I killed a bunch of wyverns and built a fort on the borderline, of which the fort was the one Albert considered important.

It's a good thing that you can't get rid of them. Thanks to that, the frontier county master was able to put most of the cost of building the fort into the economy. Moreover, the fort's construction attracted people, and thanks to the merchants and various artisans who looked to them for business, tax revenues rose and the stagnant economy soared. It's not going to achieve the same scale of results here, but the fact that the hotshot Tenma has taken action is more than enough to get people to look at it.

Not only Serna and the others listened quietly to what Albert was saying, but also me and Grandpa and the others.

'Also, you see, Temma has accumulated too much money. Of course, since Temma made his money in a legitimate way, it's up to him what he does with it, but there are those who don't like it. Probably most of them are aristocrats, though, and most of them are jealous. But some of them must be worried that the money will stop at Temma's place, which will make it harder for the economy to turn around. So by Temma lavishly paying for their wedding, there's a chance that he won't have to turn those who are worried about the economy against him. Well, part of my true feelings is that I'd be happy if the place to drop that money off is the Duke of Sangha's estate.

I told the three of them that my paying for their wedding was not only for them, but also for me, and in a roundabout way, for the country as well. Moreover, casually, Albert tried to diminish the unnaturalness of pushing for my actions by telling me that it was a story that was beneficial to him as well. His appearance is exactly like a 'big con artist(...)'.

''Serna-san, you don't have to think too hard. It's just that I'm just trying to use Serna-san's wedding to reduce my enemies. Even if Serna-san refuses, I'll be forced to make it luxurious. After all, I was Serna-san's master, even if only temporarily. Please don't let your master be embarrassed.

Later in the day, Serna finally laughed at me when I said, quite jokingly. Although she still wasn't completely convinced, she said, "It's better to know in advance than to be surprised by the gorgeousness of something you don't know about, right? I said, and forced him to admit that I would pay for the wedding.

'But I'm in trouble. There's no reason for me to attend this one. What's going on ... come to think of it, who's supposed to be the matchmaker for their wedding?

Just when I thought I had cleared the biggest obstacle in the operation to crush Henri's father's plan, Albert suddenly said something like that.

''I've asked the guild leader and Mr. Flute to do it, but........''

'You can't do that!　The head of the guild is unreliable and his wife is a heavy woman, so we can't let that happen. So there. How about letting Temma do one thing here?　Since you're paying for the wedding, you can have the matchmaker do it while you're at it. And if you get Primera to help Temma, it wouldn't be surprising if I were to attend.

Albert praises himself for being a good idea, but honestly, I still feel that it's a weak reason for Albert to attend. But Albert, in response to my concerns.

'As for your father, he'll want to know how the Primera served as a matchmaker. After all, your father is very fond of Primera. You could even call him an idiot of a parent. I have no choice but to (...) attend for such a father!　..........

He's going to say it's all for the Duke of Sangha. Well, it was also certain that Albert had enough power to force his own people to participate for that reason if they were in an important role.

That makes it impossible for me to participate.......what should I do?

Then, this time, Cain joined the conversation.

''Then, since only the Marquess of Samon's family is not going to benefit from this trip, can't we just say that they were forced to join in to prevent them from being separated any further?

'I like that!　Then it would be Rion... but I'm sure Rion would agree with everyone that 'I didn't think twice about joining'!

'No, I don't think you'll have to do that, I'll just invite the three of you as the organizer, okay?　That's good, Serna.　

''Yes, well if you've made it this far, you can do as you please, Temma. We'll just look forward to seeing how gorgeous the ceremony will be.

Serna-san seemed to have given up on a lot of things, but she seemed a little relieved when she said, "I'll have Marcus-san join me in planning the wedding.

In the end, it was decided that Albert would be Primera's, Cain and Rion would be my guests, and Grandpa and his family would be my family members (Amur is in the Ootori family's custody, so he is here, and Leni-san is Amur's attendant).

And now, old man. I'm going to serve a dish for the wedding, but the meat is wyvern, bicorn and white beef...

'Wait a minute!　I've never handled a bicorn and a white cow in my life!　I mean, you're really going to put out a super luxury product like that!

When I named the ingredients I had in my possession, especially the ones that were likely to be the main course, the old man was surprised to hear me shout out loud. The loudness of his voice made Soleil, who was sleeping quietly in the corner of the dining room in the lady's arms, cry out as loudly as her father's voice, which made her so angry at the lady, that she was extremely angry at him.

'Father. You have a bump, do you want some medicine?

Thank you.

I handed the ointment to my dad, who had a bump on his head, and he quietly took it and started applying it to the affected area.

He was partly surprised that I suddenly tried to bring out some fancy foods, but he said he was going to tell me to save those things for my own time. I said I had a good amount of food, but he told me that they might be too intimidated to enjoy the bicorn and white beef, so we had to use the wyvern, which was lower in rank than those two, but still had a lot of it. On a side note, when I told Henri's father about this wedding and that I was planning to smash what he was planning to do, I was silently berated and told, "Tell me about those things first! I was pissed.

'Then I'd like to have a degree of impact in my cooking.

'If this was a normal banquet, it would be easy to decorate the wyvern's head and all that, but we can't do that at a wedding.

I looked around at everyone who was making a lot of noise in my mind, hoping to find something that would give me a clue...

'Come to think of it, I've never heard of that one..................old man. I've got an interesting idea.

Hmm?　........oh!　That could be interesting. It's going to be a bit of a struggle, but if Temma can help me with that, I don't think it'll be a problem.

When I told my dad about the idea, he beat me to it and said it was a great idea. The ingredients will be able to be made from what we have now, so we just need to be ready for the wedding.

We'll serve several kinds of food in small portions, and Albert and his team will supervise the arrangement and give their approval, so they won't be able to make any claims.

'It sounds like a pain in the ass to make several different kinds, but if we start making them tomorrow and store the finished ones in the Magic Bag in Temma, we'll be able to make it work.

Yes, I'll help out in between, so I'd like to prepare ten different kinds if I can.

They said ten different kinds were too many, but I pushed through, saying that since I was going to surprise them, more would be better. Well, that's going to make it more onerous for me, but with the dishes I have in stock and the pre-prepared ingredients, I'll be able to make time for other shenanigans.

I called Albert and Cain over to discuss it in order to decide on a rough menu, and the two of them were willing to help me out. Well, Albert said, "It's going to be the new specialty of the Sangha Dukedom," and Cain said, "Please do the same for me! So it wasn't entirely out of good intentions. However, if the two of them are willing to cooperate, it's a small price to pay. By the way, the reason I didn't invite Chris to the meeting was because my sixth sense told me that I must not invite him! Because it rang out painfully.

"Sukiyaki!

There is no such thing!

Well, come on!

No, you're not going!

Now chan, nyah!

There you go!　sir.

When the discussion with Albert and the others had come to an end, I looked around the cafeteria to see if I could get something to eat to my stomach, and found a battle between the three Wildcat Princesses versus Amur Aura Leni-san was going on. Incidentally, the one who was screaming at the end was Millie, and the reason for that was because she was tied up with a rope that was taken out from somewhere the moment she tried to outsmart her relative, Leni-san.

Jeanne, who had been left out of the group, was with Primera and Serna, chatting happily with her wife while looking at Soleil at her wife's place. Incidentally, Henri was surrounded by his grandfather, Chris, and Marcus, who was drinking with him. Moreover, he was also accompanied by some kind of complaining.

Grandpa and Mr. Markus seemed to solve the problem when I got there, but as for Chris, he was going to be even more annoying, so I decided to leave him to Shiroumaru.

And just as I thought, Grandpa and Mr. Marx were just teasing Henri, and when I gave them a little attention, they became quiet. Then Chris-san started to mooch as if he had forgotten about Henri when Shiroumaru got close to him, and he even moved away from Henri in search of some meat to give to Shiroumaru.

''Chris-senpai looks like he'll be fine now.

Yeah.

Albert and Cain approached when they saw that Mr. Chris was far enough away from them. They wondered how their old man was doing, but he pulled into the kitchen and started cooking. Maybe he had an idea as he was talking to the two of them.

'Let's leave the rampaging ladies alone and go to the chattering ladies, shall we?　I'd like to say hello to the lead again.

So, shall we go with Temma?　We'll be surprised if we go out of the blue, you know.

We evacuated to the place where the damage was least likely to occur, but Serna and her wife became so nervous about Albert and Cain's sudden arrival that Soleil, who noticed the change, began to cry, so all three of us were turned away by Primera. To be precise, I wasn't turned away, but was pulled away by the two who disturbed the atmosphere of the place, but I just didn't resist because it looked like it was too hard to be the only one in the women's group.

'What, did you get turned away by a baby crying and then fall back here?

The only place that would host the three of us was my grandfather's place, so we had no choice but to come, but my grandfather and Mr. Markus seemed to be quite drunk. It's a good thing that you're not as drunk as you think. Probably because he couldn't drink much because he was too concerned about them and they didn't force him to drink. Well, three people close in age were going to join them, and two of them are of fairly high status, so Henri might not be able to relax.......but since this was the only place to escape, they would have to be patient.

''Speaking of which, how do I go about being a wedding matchmaker?''

I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm just going to think of you as a moderator.

'Yes. I don't have any experience with it either, but I've seen my seniors do it.

According to Marx, the senior was doing something like officiating or witnessing a wedding, so I was sipping my juice, lightly wondering if I should do something like MCing a variety show....

'Then again, we might as well let Primera help with that.

Albert's words almost made me blow out. I didn't blow out at the last minute, but the juice got into my trachea and it was like 'milk through my nose'.

'Whoa!　Temma, dirty!

Cain said something like that to me, but I was coughing and I couldn't argue with him, and I struggled for a while until the coughing stopped.

'Hah, hah, hah ... Albert, what are you saying all of a sudden?'

I looked at Albert with a bit of a glare, but he was unfazed.

No, being a matchmaker means you have to be a man and a woman, right?　It would be a bad idea for Temma, being a man, to take care of a woman.

It's true.

What Albert said was indeed correct, and when Grandpa heard that, he was the first to agree, and everyone else continued to nod their heads. But I was about to ask him why he was a primera, though I could see why.

First of all, if you're Jeanne or Aura, I'm sorry, but you don't fit in with their status. If it's Amour or Leni-san, you'll need permission from the southern barons. With the three Wildcat princesses, it's a toss-up as to who's going to play Temma.

Furthermore, he said it was a bad idea to team up with anyone other than his spouse because he was a married man if he was Mr. Flute or his wife.

In that regard, with Primera, I can give permission, and my social status is perfect. And since I'm acquainted with Temma and the bride, it's not unnatural for me to act as a matchmaker.

That being said, Primera is certainly the right person for the job, but isn't there another person for the job?　And then I thought.

''Chris-senpai I don't think I'll be able to celebrate with you wholeheartedly...''

I understood that there was no one I knew who was better suited to the task than Primera.

'Is it best to have Primera help me, as Albert says?

So when I was convinced, I called Primera and asked her to play matchmaker with me. Primera seemed to have the same doubts as I did at first, but when I told her exactly what Albert had said, she was convinced. But as for Chris-san's reasons, he only smiled bitterly and didn't say anything, but.......

After that, when Amur and his friends became more noisy, Grandpa gave them a shout-out to calm them down, Soleil, startled by Grandpa's voice, started crying again, and then became noisy again when the old man brought them some soup and food that seemed to be easy on the stomach, and so on.

---somewhere in the plains---.

Hurry!　As it is, we should be able to make it!

Please wait!　It's not safe to run a horse at night!

Even though it was getting dark around the area, a young man was about to leave, even at night, for his intended city, and was about to be stopped there by a knight who seemed to be an escort.

'If we don't get there as quickly as possible, Albert and Cain will leave Gunjo City for some reason or another!　Just to leave me behind!

'But still, sir!　If you continue to run through the night, when and where will you take a break?　Our horses are not golems, are they?

'Ugh!　I mean, that's....

'What if I keep pushing myself and my horse gets hurt?　It's going to take you a good amount of time to find a replacement horse, right?　If that happens, you will be left behind for sure. Besides, if the horse's injuries are discovered when we are stopped, but if we are in the middle of running, there is an extremely high possibility of falling off, and if the blow is bad, we will have to turn back directly to Shellhide.......taking the wrecked Rion-sama with us.

....

Moreover, after Rion-sama's funeral, our execution will be carried out. After all, he is a great sinner who is as good as murdered the target of our guard, the next Earl of the Frontier,

No, it's not...

Everyone, nevertheless, Rion-sama says to proceed. Write a letter or suicide note to your families while you still can. As soon as they're done, we'll follow Master Lyon's orders and run through the darkness.　Hurry!

'I'm sorry!　Seriously, I'm sorry!　There!　Don't write a suicide note while lying and crying!　Please, don't write me a letter muttering the names of your family members!　Because I was wrong!

So I guess we'll just have to follow my instructions from here on out, then?

I'll take care of everything...

Thus, Rion's reckless action was thwarted by the knight's admonition. Incidentally, the early morning of this next day. A few hours after their departure, Rion and his party were attacked by a pack of wolves, but none of them were injured thanks to the success of the knights in their escort. Just the knight who admonished Leon after repelling the wolf pack.

'If the attack had been at night, there might have been some deaths. That it didn't happen is thanks to Lord Rion's wise decision.

After hearing these words, Rion did not object to the knight's instructions from then on. As a result, Rion and his team's speed increased, and they would join Temma and the others faster than first expected.